At the nameless company where I once worked, we had a computer network. And on that network we sometimes gamed. A buddy of mine, who most recently leveled to 70 with the wife and I in World of Warcraft, anyway, back in the day he and his friend would play some jet fighter plane game on the network.

Eventually his friend got pretty busy with work, and we moved into Warcraft, then Subspace, then Total Annihilation. Nothing like a three or four way deathmatch, each on our own floor, eating lunch, and launching wars with a phone call to an ally. The battles we’d have. I was a porcupine player. The later-WoW buddy was a zerger. Our other friend managed to crank out flights of Dragons or ships. Oh, the happy days of completing my Big Bertha and dismantling their bases shot by shot and them wondering “What’s going on?” and “Where’s that coming from??”

These were fun games. Endlessly fun. But the first mad, heart pounding rush, came from a game called Doom. Those first times, and many many times more, nothing could get the heart rate up, the adrenalin flowing, like chasing workmates around tunnels and halls and fragging them.

The Dooms, Quakes, and does anyone remember Heretic and Hexen? Looking at those pictures brings back memories. I remember that level in Hexen, with the wall tiles looking like waves, and that horned skull weapon.

I’ve gotten a little bit of that feeling back lately. The 70 end-game is a lot more hectic than the old 60 one was. The 60 end-game could have been, but wasn’t. A Shattered Halls run will leave my hand cramped after firing off COUNTLESS sunders, shield blocks, revenges, devastates, taunts, shield slams, shield bashes, and heroic strikes. Oh, and moving mob to mob to mob to mob, and spamming thunder claps and commanding shouts the whole while. Every keyboard I’ve burned through in a couple of months has had the s and d keys wiped clean. No keyboard survives this.

Black Morass, though, from my standpoint, is a little easier. Tanking a single target, and then thunder clapping the adds as they spawn, to keep them close so the Hunters can multi-shot and continue primary DPS. Droonda was there, and on the last boss, her heals kept me alive through the time stops. Our next attempt, replacing Droonda, who’d retired for the night, with a Hunter not with us on vent, I didn’t catch that last of the healing and Aenous was brought to 1%, but not 0%. It was a rep run and I came out 100 less than max possible. Not bad. But I’m not used to wipes.

Anyway, this might have been Droonda’s first “rush” moment. The Black Morass. She logged to get her heart rate down so she could go to sleep. ;) “It gets easier,” I told her.

And she did get her Master’s Key done. And the guild is offering Karazhan runs for the less-prepared. Attumen and the Animal boss. This guild’s got some strict requirements for running Kara. 4 pieces of your Dungeon Set 3. At least 3 Heroic keys, with full clears of each instance with the guild. 140 Arcane Resist. This sword drops of Aeonus. It looks cool. I’d like it, but don’t need it. The guild leader, who’s running this with us, says “Hey, that might be a good tanking sword.” “Yeah, but I’ve already got my King’s Defender.” … “Really?” “Yeah.” So, anyway, Droonda is keyed, and the Guild is going to be making some casual forays into Karazhan for folks to give them a taste. Frankly, Karazhan with ten can be easier than Black Morass with five.

And with this gear, what can we solo in the old world. On a lark, waiting for the BM group, I rode into Zul’Farak. I can handle groups of 3 at a time. I really don’t take much damage anymore. I probably couldn’t handle the prisoner escape alone though. But could I “clear” Zul’Farak and otherwise run someone through for their Carrot on a Stick quest?